17 October 2018

Dr Edwin Borman, Medical Director at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) said: “Plans to temporarily suspend overnight emergency services at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford will not be approved until the Board are assured that watertight plans are in place for every patient to receive the safest pathway of care. 

“The pathways are being worked through by our clinicians in regular conversations with neighbouring trusts and our regulators, NHS Improvement and NHS England. We are continuing to work with all of these organisations to ensure, that in the event of us having to suspend overnight emergency services at PRH, we are able to deliver the best outcomes for our patients and neighbouring Trusts.

“Claims that SaTH has not engaged with or involved partners in mental health and community services is factually wrong. They are part of the Regional Flows Meetings, which Royal Wolverhampton Trust is a member of. These are meetings specifically set up to involve partners from across the health and social care system including community and mental health services, to ensure partners are fully involved in the closure plans.

“SaTH is continuing its efforts to recruit to its Emergency Departments. Over the past 12 months the Trust has placed six adverts for Consultant posts and nine for Middle Grade Doctors, but a shortage of emergency care doctors in the UK means people are choosing to work in the bigger centres.

“One of the biggest areas we struggle to recruit into is middle grade posts. We did explore the link with Wolverhampton University when approached by Royal Wolverhampton Trust to develop Fellowship Posts as part of the solution to the recruitment of middle grade doctors. But at that stage we were not able to make progress. We have revisited this working directly with Wolverhampton University and are likely to be taking that partnership forward to offer Fellowship posts early in 2019. They are challenging posts that test skills that are not the focus of most clinical training roles, yet are highly relevant and transferable to senior clinical roles.

“SaTH has however been successful in recruiting three new substantive Emergency Consultants since the £312m NHS Future Fit funding was secured to transform healthcare services in Shropshire.

“Since the turn of the year, the Trust has appointed 22 new Consultants across all specialities, secured funding for 30 additional Junior Doctors over the next two years and appointed 32 newly qualified Staff Nurses in September. More than 100 Staff Nurses have joined SaTH across the specialities since the beginning of the year.”